the Father and the Son ; then as executed by Christ Jesus in his incarnate and glorified state ; and, lastly, as they will be consummated at the day of judgment. Say, then, whether we should not deHght in drawing nigh to God, and having our souls filled with these heavenly contemplations ? If the shadow of these things so endeared to David the house of God, what should the substance of them effect in our hearts ?]
3. Our communications from him are more abun- dant—
[Doubtless David was most highly favoured of the Lord ; and " God was very abundant towards him, both in faith and love"." But still we cannot yield to him, no, not even to him, in the privileges we enjoy. The Holy Spirit was not then " poured out so abundantly" as he has since been upon the servants of the Lord^. To us he is given as " a Spirit of adoption y," and as "a witness" to testify of that adoption^; and as " a seal," to mark us for the Lord's peculiar treasure ^ The servile spirit of the Law is altogether banished from us, and we are " made free indeed^" With what exalted views are we sometimes favoured, when we can see the Lord Jesus Christ actually bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, and pleading our cause at the right hand of God, and ordering every thing, both in heaven and earth, for our welfare, and preparing for us a mansion in heaven, himself taking possession of it for us as our forerunner, and shortly about to come again in his own person to invest us with all the glory he has purchased for us, even a participation of his own throne, his own kingdom, and his own glory! What is all this, but "an earnest" of heaven itself already begun in the soul? Yet all. this is vouch- safed to us frequently under the ministry of the word, and at the table of the Lord; insomuch that we seem caught up, as it were, into the third heavens, and scarcely know whether we are in the body or out the body, by reason of the brightness of our views, and the blessedness of our souls. I mean not to say that this is the experience of all, nor of any at all times : but I do say, that it is the privilege of all ; and that it is our own fault if we do not actually possess it : and that the hope of gratifying our taste with these rich dainties cannot fail of en- dearing to us the house where this feast is provided for us^.]
It will now, in conclusion, be profitable to inquire,
\. Whence it is that this experience is so rare —
[It must be confessed that there are but few who thus delight in the ordinances of God. But why is this? Would
u 1 Tim. i. 14. ^ John vii. 39. Tit. iii. 6. y Rom. viii. 15. z Rom. viii. 16. a Eph. i. 13, 14. ^ John viii. 36.
<* Isai. XXV. 6 — 8.